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Sweden jails Syrian soldier for ‘war crimes’

October 5, 2017 at 1:17 pm

Swedish court [Zeke530/Wikipedia]

A Syrian soldier has been convicted of a war crime and jailed for eight months in Sweden, New York Times reported yesterday.

In a landmark ruling, a Swedish court convicted a low-ranked Syrian soldier of violating human dignity and mistreating corpses. The 32-year-old soldier, Mohammad Abdullah, sought refuge in Sweden three years ago. Other Syrian refugees in the country realised that he was in Sweden via Facebook. The Syrian community linked the soldier to a photograph on social media where he is seen standing over dead persons in Syria, smiling.

Social media documenting of crimes in conflict zones is becoming a prominent means for evidence. Sweden has taken a strong stance against war criminals along with Germany which is pursuing 17 cases involving war crimes in Syria.

Syria has been locked in a civil war since early 2011, when President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests. Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and in excess of ten million displaced, according to the UN.

Sweden is currently running 13 other potential war crime cases according to a Human Rights Watch report, which includes fighters from armed opposition groups.

Read: Syrian regime committed ‘war crimes’